The Catalan Interlude
by xLostInTheSun
Summary: AU - Penelope, Amelia and Bernadette, scientists, win a trip to Barcelona. Despite her friends' desire to never leave the hotel room, Penelope manages to meet Lenny, lead singer of rock band The Big Bang Theory. The spark changes Penelope's and Lenny's lives as surely as it changes Amelia's and Bernadette's, for they meet Sheldon, Howard and Raj, Lenny's bandmates. S/A, L/P, H/B
1. The Elevator Factor

**A/N: Hello everyone! Thank you for reading this fic that I'm writing for Chloe, aka bigbangsheldon. She wanted an AU were the guys were badasses and the girls... not so much.**

**The first chapter is from Penny's point of view (or rather Penelope's) and obviously L/P heavy but all characters will feature equally in this fic and the point of view will change at each chapter.**

**A round of applause for Natalie, aka bludgertothehead on tumblr, who proof-read this chapter for me, and that's about it!**

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_The Catalan Interlude - Chapter One: The Elevator Factor_

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"Are you girls sure you don't wanna come?"

Bernadette looked up from her comic book long enough to say, "No, thanks," and Amelia didn't even bother pretending she had any interest at all in answering the question. Penelope tried very hard not to roll her eyes at her friend, but then again, what had she been expecting? If there was one thing she'd learnt from three years as Amelia's roommate, it was that nothing could get her attention like comic books. Not that Penelope didn't like comic books herself, because she sure did; she simply thought, sometimes, that they might be missing out on interesting things when all they were ever doing was living life through ink and paper.

Actually, that was very much what they were doing at the moment. They had arrived in Barcelona three days earlier for a three-week-long vacation that Bernadette had won at her lab's annual Christmas lottery, but they hadn't seen anything of the city besides the airport and their hotel room. Penelope had tried to convince them to go out at least once every two days, and Bernadette had considered it a moment before saying she agreed to an outing once a week, while Amelia had answered that she had no interest in burning under the fiery Spanish sun.

And there they were, both so enraptured by the new adventures of the Avengers that they didn't even want to come downstairs with her so they could simply have breakfast. Penelope sighed. She loved her friends dearly, but sometimes she really wished they were not holding her back from all the exciting things life had to offer and that a part of her longed to discover.

She walked to the elevator, her step both sad and annoyed, and was not looking where she was going when she bumped into someone waiting for the elevator. It was a man who was a good head shorter than her, and yet he exuded a charisma Penelope could never dream of possessing. Blinking rapidly, she apologized profusely.

"I'm really sorry," she said, "I wasn't looking where I was going and I just… feel so stupid, and I hope you'll forgive me for ruining your day. I literally am the stupidest person I know and that's true, Amelia and Bernadette are so much smarter than me and…"

As she rambled, Penelope could feel herself grow hot. Oh, how she hated that. Whenever she was under pressure or feeling very stupid, she would ramble for minutes on end, which made her even more stupid and stressed. It really was the most vicious circle in her life, and Penelope had more than a few of those.

"Anyway, I really am sorry and I…"

"Hey," the man interrupted, "that's okay. We all have bad days."

He smiled at her from behind what Penelope's sister referred to as "hipster glasses", and for some reason, there was something in his eyes and his smile that somehow calmed her a little.

"Thank you," she breathed, and just at that moment, the elevator door opened.

"Please," he said, gesturing towards the elevator.

Smiling nervously, Penelope entered it and he followed just behind.

"It's nice to meet another American here," he said as if continuing a perfectly normal conversation, for which Penelope was grateful. Most people just laughed whenever she would ramble. (Amelia was one of the only people who didn't laugh, but that was because Amelia never laughed at anything. Sometimes Penelope wondered how on Earth they had become friends.)

"Have you seen much of the city yet?" the man asked, and Penelope sighed.

"Unfortunately, no. I came here with friends who aren't that big on going outside."

The man had a look of disbelief on his face.

"Why even come to Barcelona, then?"

"One of us won the trip, so we figured we might as well use it."

He didn't say anything, but Penelope was willing to bet he was silently judging them. She knew _she_ did it. She used the silence to steal a glance in his direction, taking time to really examine his appearance. His brown eyes seemed friendly and amused, and his mouth wasn't set in a firm line like most people's would be, but in a slightly crooked smile. His hair was short and yet long enough to be considered messy, adding to the friendliness of his face, and his clothes were simple yet Penelope knew they were saying a lot about him: a well-worn pair of black jeans she suspected he had owned for a few years already, a red tee shirt where she could read the words "Green Day" and used grey tennis shoes. If there was a word for his style, Penelope believed it would have to be… rock and roll, and maybe that was three words after all.

Penelope suddenly felt like she had to say something. She had no idea where the urge was coming from, but she knew she did, and she found herself rattling her usually brilliant brain. Before she even had the time to come up with anything, though, the elevator stopped on the ground floor and its door opened again.

The man looked at her expectantly, and Penelope hurriedly came out of the elevator. Once again, he followed behind her, and then said "It was nice meeting you. Maybe I'll see you around?"

Penelope simply nodded, for she had suddenly grown disappointed, even though she wasn't sure why. She rode elevators with a certain number of people at Caltech, and she was never unhappy to leave them, but just as she was about to go on with her life without the pretty boy from the elevator, he turned towards her.

"I was going to have breakfast in a café not far from here because there is definitely room for improvement regarding food in this hotel," he said. "Do you want to join me?"

A lot of thoughts suddenly ran through Penelope's head, but the most prominent was utter surprise. The thing was… Penelope wasn't Amelia, and she was no stranger to men and love – she'd been in love twice and sexually involved with three people – but Penelope still wasn't the kind of woman men like him asked out. And maybe he wasn't asking her out, maybe he was just offering breakfast because he thought it was a shame that she hadn't seen anything of Barcelona yet, maybe he just thought it'd be nicer for him not to eat alone, and Penelope was just imagining things, but still, it was the nicest thing that had happened to her for a while. So, in the end, she smiled and nodded.

**ooo**

"_Après vous, mademoiselle_," he said, holding the café door open for her, and Penelope walked in, smiling as she said "Oh, you speak French!"

"I don't. Those are the only three words I know," he replied, and Penelope laughed softly.

"Come on," he added, "I'll show you to my favourite table."

It was a nice table for four, located near the back of the café, and Penelope finally took a look around her, appreciating the Mediterranean style of the establishment.

"This is lovely," she said as she sat down. "Thank you."

He smiled and sat down too, before saying, "You know, I just realised I don't even know your name."

"I'm Penelope," she said.

"It's a nice name."

Penelope smiled. "I know. What's yours?"

"Lenny."

"It's a cool name."

"I know."

She smiled at him over the menu a petite waitress had just brought them (although she had ignored Penelope altogether, her big black eyes never leaving Lenny, annoying Penelope for reasons that totally evaded her), and they were silent for a couple of minutes as they were both perusing the menu. All the while, Penelope couldn't help but be amazed at how at ease she was feeling with Lenny. She never felt at ease with people she didn't know much, especially when they were pretty men who were obviously very confident. She fleetingly wondered what was so different about him, but didn't have much time to ponder the question as their waitress was soon back to take their orders (and stare some more at Lenny).

After they had placed their orders, Lenny looked at Penelope with a smile and said:

"So, Penelope, what can you tell me about yourself?"

Ah, the tricky question. She figured she could either lie and make herself a pretty badass girl or tell the truth and be seen as the hopeless nerd she was. Each position had its lot of pros and cons, after all. If she lied and Lenny knew it, she'd look pretty stupid; if she didn't lie, she'd look pretty stupid. In the end, Penelope went with telling the truth. She had looked stupid already at the elevator door anyway; Lenny probably knew what to expect.

"I'm from Nebraska, but I work as an experimental physicist at Caltech University in Pasadena, California."

"Really?" Lenny exclaimed. "I'm from New Jersey myself, but my band is based in Pasadena and I've lived there for over ten years. It's a small world."

Had she been Amelia, Penelope would probably have noted that the world is anything but small. But she wasn't, so Penelope's smile simply widened and she said "It really is."

Their waitress then came back, bringing with her Penelope and Lenny's breakfasts. She offered an extra smile to Lenny, who smiled back politely, and Penelope started resenting being ignored, but then the waitress was gone, Lenny smiled at her again, and Penelope felt better.

"_Bon appétit_," she said, and Lenny laughed.

"Do _you_ speak French, or are those the only two words you know?"

"I learnt it a few years ago," Penelope answered. "I had to spend six months in Switzerland for work."

They ate in comfortable silence for a while, until Penelope realised she had no idea what Lenny did for a living.

"What about your work?" she asked, as if their conversation hadn't been interrupted by their waitress or Penelope's French interlude.

Lenny looked at her funnily over his scrambled eggs. "Oh, come on," he said, as if the answer was obvious. Penelope raked her brain for a few seconds, but it really wasn't.

"What?" she said, and Lenny snorted.

"You're not going to pretend you don't know, are you?"

Penelope was at a loss for words. What exactly was she supposed to know? Had she fallen into a parallel universe in which Lenny was President of the United States of America?

"I don't know what you're talking about," Penelope said, and Lenny seemed to realise she was serious because he looked suddenly surprised.

"That would explain why you didn't say anything," he said. "Usually, people ask for an autograph right away."

"An autograph?"

"I'm the lead singer in the biggest selling American band of the year," Lenny answered. "We're on tour around the world at the moment. Barcelona is our last date."

"Oh, wow."

Penelope didn't really know what to say. Truth was, she knew a lot of things regarding physics, and even though she didn't want to admit it, even more about comic books and fantastic novels and video games, but she was at a complete loss regarding a lot of other things. Rock bands were definitely a topic she had never mastered.

"Congratulations, I guess?" she said, and Lenny laughed.

"Likewise. I had never met someone who didn't know me."

That most certainly explained the waitress's fascination with Lenny, then. Penelope didn't know if she should feel better or worse at this new piece of information. If she was going to be competing with every groupie Lenny had, she would never stand a chance and… _woah, where had this train of thought come from?_

Penelope could suddenly feel herself blushing furiously. Lenny raised an eyebrow, visibly intrigued by her reaction, and Penelope felt even more stupid.

"I… erm, I get red in the face at random moments," she stuttered, and Lenny just smiled sweetly before checking the time.

"Hey, listen," he said. "I have to go now, my band's doing a photoshoot this morning and then it's the soundcheck for tonight's gig."

Penelope nodded. Deep down, she'd known Lenny would eventually have to go back to his interesting life where there was no place for nerdy girls; it still didn't lessen the disappointment.

"Why don't you come and see us?" he asked. "The show's sold out, but I can get you on the guest list. Your friends, too, if they're interested. You'll even be able to get backstage," he added, with a wink, and who was Penelope to reject him?

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**A/N: See you soon for chapter 2!**


	2. The Filthy Toilets Conundrum

**A/N: Sorry for the delays! But in the past two weeks, I moved out, my laptop died, I had to buy a new one and rewrite the entirety of the chapter, my beta was tired and then ffnet wasn't working properly. Am I excused yet?**

**This chapter is kind of a filter, but I hope you like it anyway. **

**Don't forget to applaud Natalie's perfect beta job.**

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_The Catalan Interlude - Chapter Two: The Filthy Toilets Conundrum_

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"Absolutely not."

Amelia didn't even pay attention to Penelope's groan and went on reading the latest issue of The Avengers.

"Come on," Bernadette said. "It could be fun."

Amelia looked at Bernadette long enough to raise a surprised eyebrow.

"_Fun?_ Five minutes ago you didn't even want to go."

"And in the meantime, we've looked up The Big Bang Theory on Youtube and I decided I quite like their music."

Amelia shrugged.

"Not my fault if you have a feeble mind," she said, dismissing Penelope's offer to go with her to a rock concert for good.

Penelope had walked back into their hotel room half an hour ago, claiming she'd met someone incredible and that one day, they would have smart and beautiful babies. Amelia had inferred that they would also probably be imaginary, uninterested in learning more about this mysterious man. Bernadette had asked questions, though, and they had learnt that Penelope's dreamed boyfriend was in a rock band; Penelope had then informed her friends that they were all invited to their concert.

Bernadette and Amelia had both said they weren't interested, but when Penelope had suggested that they should at least listen to one of their songs before judging, Amelia had found herself alone in her disinterest for the concert as Bernadette had said she would actually like to go.

"The drummer is kinda cute," she'd added, and Amelia had had no other choice but to roll her eyes.

The thing was, out of the three of them, she was the only one who was completely immune to the opposite sex. Amelia had never had sex nor even kissed anyone in her life, and it left her two roommates surprised, but, truth be told, Amelia considered herself and her no-relationship policy much wiser than Penelope and Bernadette.

"But how come you've never even kissed anyone?" Bernadette had asked the first time they had discussed the subject, about two years before.

"Because I'm not interested."

"Aren't you a little curious?" Bernadette had insisted, and "Yeah, you're a scientist. Where is the curiosity?" Penelope had chimed in, and Amelia had just shrugged.

"I know everything there is to know about kissing. It requires thirty four facial muscles and a hundred and twelve postural muscles."

Penelope had looked incredulous, and Bernadette had said Amelia probably just didn't want to kiss anyone because she had never met anyone from her species. As good an explanation as any, and given how Amelia was the one and only Homo Novus, she would always be celibate, which suited her just fine.

Returning to the problem at hand, though, Amelia was now pestered by Penelope and Bernadette.

"Come ooon Amy, it'll be fun!" Penelope whined.

"_Amy?_"

"Just trying something new."

Amelia looked up from her comic book long enough to throw Penelope a dirty look.

"I don't like that; don't do that."

"Only if you come with us."

"No."

Penelope sighed, visibly wondering how to convince Amelia to join them on their nonsensical expedition, but Bernadette simply rolled her eyes.

"Let her be," she said. "We can always go just the two of us."

"I know," Penelope relented. Amelia, who was still reading her comic book, heard Penelope drag Bernadette into the bathroom more than she saw her do it and, knowing her friend, she had a hunch she should use her Vulcan hearing and listen carefully. Amelia would have bet that Penelope had scheming on her mind.

And sure enough, Amelia heard her friend whisper "Still, I wish we could take her with us."

"Why would you even want to?" Bernadette whispered back. "The way I see it, it's probably better if Amelia isn't here. She would just embarrass us."

Penelope sighed. "I know… it's just… Sometimes, I wish she was my friend in actions as much as she is in words."

Hearing those words finally made Amelia put her comic book aside and consider what her friend was trying to say. Maybe… maybe Penelope was right. Maybe Amelia didn't show her friend enough appreciation, which was sad, because Amelia definitely felt a lot of affection for Penelope. They had known each other for five years and been roommates for three, and Amelia could say, without a doubt, that she considered Penelope her best friend. Now, though, and for the first time, she realized Penelope perhaps didn't see her as her best friend, and it was kind of hurtful.

And Amelia was not to forget Bernadette, either. Their relationship was more chaotic than the one she had with Penelope and they considered themselves more like frenemies than actual friends, but at the end of the day, Amelia had grown to appreciate Bernadette, even if only a little, and, well… Amelia figured it was only fair that she tried and made some effort, wasn't it? But, then again… The Big Bang Theory music really wasn't her thing at all. She played the harp, she hadn't grown up listening to rock music. Maybe… maybe Amelia could make an effort on another day. Yes. That sounded good.

She resumed reading her comic book, not paying any attention to her friends, still locked in the bathroom. And maybe she should have, for she would have been able to hear her friends' plan. But it was too late for Amelia when Penelope and Bernadette came out of the bathroom, an unsure look on one face and an evil grin on the other.

"Amelia," Bernadette purred, and Amelia groaned a "What?"

"If you do not come with us tonight, I'm paying the cleaning lady to hide a dirty sock somewhere in this hotel room, and I'll never tell you where."

Amelia would have said that she felt her blood run cold if she wasn't too intelligent to know better than using such a scientifically inaccurate image, but the feeling was the same nonetheless.

"You're bluffing," she choked.

Bernadette's sadistic smile widened when she asked "Are you willing to risk it?"

Amelia and Bernadette stared into each other's eyes for about ten seconds, and they both knew who would win this silent contest before Amelia even opened her mouth.

"Curse you."

**ooo**

"I'm going to kill myself."

The two people sitting next to her looked at each other before getting up and walking away, one of them muttering a "loca" that left Amelia annoyed. In her not so humble opinion, the crazy people were those who paid money to come and see this band. And besides, her mother had had her tested.

Sighing, Amelia took another sip of her tepid water and tried to block out the noise of the loud music and the five thousands singing people in the audience, but it was virtually impossible. She checked her watch and groaned. Two more hours. That meant she'd only been there for ten minutes. How this could have been, she had no idea. All she knew was that, in this moment, suicide was… tempting.

Amelia wondered fleetingly whether or not Penelope and Bernadette were enjoying themselves, or if they were now on the verge of a panic attack, realizing how wrong they had been for deciding to go to that stupid concert. She had left them as soon as the music had started, saying she'd be waiting for them at the bar, and there she was, ten minutes later, realizing it would be soon time for Bernadette to take the classes since she had just gotten her third strike.

"¿Como está señora?" the barman asked, then dropping any attempt at conversation as Amelia stared at him with an annoyed look on her face. This was going to be a veeery long night indeed.

Sometime around the sixth or seventh song – she had stopped counting, but the song count was roughly the same as the number of glasses of water she'd had – Amelia, who had thought until then that things could not have been worse, felt the first stirring in her lower belly characterizing a need to go to the toilets. By the time the band – that Amelia had not even bothered watching until then – started playing their twelfth song, Amelia's bladder couldn't take it anymore. She got up and walked quickly to the toilets she'd seen on her way to the bar earlier. She pushed the red door marked with a pink sticker with relief… until she saw the filthy state of the toilets and felt herself get dizzy.

Penelope often said that Amelia's obsession with cleanliness and fear of germs were ridiculous, but seeing how dirty those toilets were, Amelia was pretty sure her best friend could not disagree with her. It was _that _bad.

Amelia quickly shut the door close and she sighed loudly, exasperated. This night was really taking a turn for the worse. Maybe living with a dirty sock for three weeks wouldn't have been that bad, after all. Bringing a hand to her face, she exhaled profoundly, trying to calm herself. She knew most relaxation techniques were complete hokum, but she figured that in a case like this one, trying definitely wouldn't hurt.

"Come on," she said to herself. "You have a bigger IQ than the one of all the people attending this concert. You should be able to come up with a solution."

Suddenly, there was someone beside her. A small brunette, with a mousy face and an apparent shyness, and she just gaped at Amelia without saying anything. Until Amelia frowned at her, that was.

"I'm… I'm sorry," the mousy girl stuttered. "It' just that… where did you even get this?"

Amelia followed the girl's finger. It pointed to the plasticized backstage pass that had been given to her when she had given her name at the entrance of the venue. Penelope and Bernadette had had gotten one, too, and the lady who had handed the badges to them had said they were presents from Lenny's.

"You can get backstage whenever you like, with that," she had said. Penelope and Bernadette had squealed and giggled. Amelia had merely rolled her eyes.

The mousy girl was still staring at her and Amelia was about to tell her off when she suddenly got a better idea.

"I can give it to you if you tell me where to find clean toilets. Or if you scrub these ones from top to bottom for me. And I want them spotless."

The mousy girl gaped some more for about thirty seconds until Amelia, exasperated, cleared her throat.

"So?" she asked, and the girl coughed.

"I… Sure… but… why do you not use your pass to simply go to the toilets backstage?"

Amelia looked at her for a few seconds, mentally slapping herself for not thinking about it first, before she walked off without a second glance, barely catching the mousy girl's voice when she growled at herself an "Oh God, Lucy, you literally are the stupidest person ever."

Amelia walked back to the entrance and, spotting the same woman who had given her the pass, she nearly smiled. Funny how she had thought of this woman as the bane of her existence mere minutes before when she saw her as nothing short but a savior in this instant.

"Hello," Amelia said. "I need to get backstage now. Where should I go?"

The lady smiled and explained her how to get behind the scenes, and when she was done, Amelia only muttered a thank you and stalked off towards the back of the venue, anxious to get to a clean bathroom as soon as possible, and completely oblivious to who she would meet and what was going to happen there…

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**A/N: Thanks for reading! Next chapter coming up soon!**


	3. The Floral Lifeline Acquisition

**A/N: This chapter is once more coming a little late. That's because my lovely beta was awfully sick these days, and she still is but she took time to proofread this for me. She's the best. Show her some love. To Natalie!**

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_The Catalan Interlude - Chapter 3: The Floral Lifeline Acquisition_

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"The audience is on fire tonight!" Lenny said, grinning widely, and Raj had to agree. There were good concerts, where people were visibly enjoying the set and themselves, and then there were amazing concerts, like Barcelona definitely was.

"The audience isn't the only thing that's on fire," Howard interjected, and Raj couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"Dude," he said, "you're getting really gross."

Howard winked, apparently not caring about Raj's opinion on the matter.

"Judge all you want," he said, "but I'm the one who is sleeping with my thousandth woman tonight."

Raj rolled his eyes a second time. "I can't even believe you're keeping track of the number of women you've slept with."

"What can I say? I'm a romantic," Howard shrugged, and Lenny and Raj both snorted derisively.

"Please. Sheldon is ten times more romantic than you are, and _he's _never been in a relationship."

Raj vigorously nodded at Lenny's observation, but before Howard could answer anything, Siebert, their manager, was beside them.

"Alright, guys," he said. "The encore is in ten seconds."

Raj looked around him and realised "Sheldon isn't back yet."

Siebert groaned. "I hate it when he does that, and he knows it."

"Which is why he's doing it," remarked Lenny. "You'd think that after three years as our tour manager, you'd know the guy."

Siebert seemed about to answer something when Sheldon suddenly popped out of nowhere.

"I was emptying my bowels," he said matter-of-factly, visibly missing the look of disgust on his band-mates' faces. Sometimes, Raj wondered how someone as weird and stuck up as Sheldon had even made his way to a rock band. It perpetually amazed him that Sheldon wasn't some sort of crazy scientist, always locked up in his office, solving equations after equations.

"Anyway," Siebert said. "You're going back on stage now."

They all nodded and Raj took a deep breath before following Howard and Lenny onto the stage. Even after years as the bassist of the biggest rock band in the USA, Raj was still a bit anxious about getting on stage. The truth was, had anyone told him when he was a child back in India that one day, he'd be touring the world playing rock music and making girls faint, he wouldn't have believed them.

Raj had had a lot of problems growing up. He had always been a quiet, shy child, and things had gotten worse as he had become older. His selective mutism had started around the age of fourteen, and if it hadn't been for music, he wasn't sure where he'd be in the present. Being a musician had helped him more than anything, especially the meds and psychoanalyses his parents, both doctors, had insisted he take as a part of his treatment. When he had had the chance to move to the United States to study the arts in California, he had jumped on the opportunity.

He had then met Lenny and Howard in school, both with problems of their own, even though none of them would ever admit it as readily as Raj did. But there was no doubt in his mind that Lenny had chosen this career to get back at his mother, another doctor who had made his childhood and his teenage years a living hell, and that Howard wouldn't have had such an obsession with women and sex if his father hadn't left his family when he was a kid. A few months later, when Lenny had decided he was tired of living in a dorm and wanted to share a flat with someone, they had met Sheldon and his whole new level of problems. The things that weren't right about him were so numerous that Raj didn't even know where to begin, but he too had taken an interest in music growing up, and, somehow, one thing leading to another, they had all started a band.

They only struggled a couple of years before Siebert, who had seen them playing in a café, realised they could be the next big thing and had managed to get them a record deal. Next thing they knew, Raj and the guys were the most popular rock band in America and touring all over the world.

It had all happened so fast, and there were times when it was still overwhelming. For the most part, it was an amazing experience and Raj didn't regret a minute of it, but sometimes, it was a bit too much. Big concerts were one of the things that still made him uneasy. It was like being naked in front of a crowd of ten thousand people, and often a bit too much for Raj.

But in the end, he loved his job. He was paid to play music with his friends, and he realised he was lucky. A lot of people dreamed of being rock stars without ever achieving it. He was one of the lucky few, and he couldn't complain. Besides, he had found a few tricks to be able to overcome his anxiety at the idea of being on stage.

Most of the time, he caught someone's eye in the audience, and only looked at them for the duration of the concert as if he were playing for only one person. It was something he had found to work extremely well. Sheldon claimed he hated that — that it made the whole thing much more personal than it was intended to be, but on the contrary, Raj found it a lot less intimidating and this trick helped him feel much more relaxed.

That night, he had decided to focus on a pretty, petite blonde on the first row. As he and the guys walked back on the stage under a veritable thunderstorm of applause, he spotted her again and suddenly felt better.

He never chose women, though, as most of the problems he had involved them, so he fleetingly wondered what it was about this one that had caught his attention like this. She was pretty, sure, but she wasn't insanely beautiful either, and Raj never really paid that much attention to a woman's physical appearance anyway. But there was something about her blonde curls, the floral dress hugging her petite figure and the sparkling eyes behind her glasses that made him feel good. Smiling at her, he grabbed his bass and went on playing the rest of the set.

**ooo**

As soon as their final song was over, Raj quickly walked back toward the backstage area, closely followed by Sheldon. Lenny and Howard usually lingered behind, saluting the audience one last time, but if he and Sheldon shared one thing, it was definitely their uneasiness at being surrounded by thousands of strangers. His sister, Priya, often mocked him, saying he had chosen the wrong career path if he was so ill-at-ease and that being in a popular rock band visibly wasn't enough to save him from being "a huge dork", but Raj really couldn't care less what she thought of him. (She had lost any right to make fun of her brother the day she had decided that dating Lenny was a good idea.)

"That was an amazing show, guys," Siebert said as soon as they were behind the scenes, and Raj smiled. It really had been.

"Of course it was," Sheldon snorted. "We're an amazingly talented band, people love us and most of them are actually clever enough to recognise perfection when they see it."

"Modest as always," Lenny laughed, coming back from the scene, and Howard, who was closely following him, added "He's right, you know. We are perfect."

Lenny rolled his eyes and said "Sure, sure."

Sheldon checked the time on his pocket watch – Raj was always amazed at the fact that Sheldon's idea of what made a man cool was a pocket watch, and even more when he remembered that he had actually set a trend and that pocket watches were now the must-have of the moment – and said "Alright, if we leave now, we can be back at the hotel before midnight."

But Siebert visibly had other plans. "It's the last date of the tour, Sheldon. You're not going anywhere. A lot of personalities and representatives of the labels are here to party backstage with you guys."

And before Sheldon could do anything but groan, Siebert was walking towards some Spanish starlet to welcome her to the party.

"Hmmm… she could be my Number Thousand," Howard said, his lecherous gaze lingering on the woman's breasts before drifting to the curve of her hip.

Lenny rolled his eyes, something Howard didn't miss, and he smirked when he added "Or maybe I could fuck that chick you invited to the show."

Lenny growled and said "No way. Penelope is a nice girl and she really doesn't need to be pestered by you."

Raj giggled. "Lenny and Penny, sitting in a tree, K. I. S. S. I. N. G."

Lenny blushed furiously and it was Howard's turn to roll his eyes. "I don't get you," he said. "You're so famous you could have literally anyone you want, but you crush on a scientist nerd of all people?"

"I don't expect you to understand," Lenny answered. "You're definitely not a romantic," he observed, echoing Howard's words from before the encore.

Raj could only agree. Even though the four of them had gotten to be very good friends over the years, two pairs had clearly emerged, and while Sheldon was Lenny's best friend, Howard was Raj's and he knew him better than anyone. And if Raj was sure of one thing, it was that nothing in Howard made him remotely close to being romantic. A sexual being? Yes, definitely, often to the point of being disgusting – the way he used his fame to sleep with women and then discard them like last week's leftovers was something Raj had a hard time excusing. But a romantic? Raj couldn't even begin to wrap his mind around the idea of Howard staying with a woman for more than three days, let alone be romantic with her. Sheldon was the only one of the four of them who had never been in a relationship, but even he often said that he'd get married before Howard.

"Besides," Lenny added as if wanting to defend himself and his taste in women, "Penelope is beautiful."

"Yeah, whatever man," he said, but then something caught his eye. Raj followed Howard's glaze and heard him snort derisively the moment he saw the person who was coming towards them.

"Oh yeah," Howard said sarcastically, "Very hot. I'd drove this Ferrari into oblivion like woah."

Raj had to agree with Howard. The woman walking towards them was obviously Penelope, for there was no way in hell someone who wasn't a science dork would dress like that. Her clothes seemed way too big for her, and if her green cardigan, her yellow mustard skirt and her red tights were of any indication, she visibly had a hard time coordinating colours. Her brown hair was pinned to one side with a single black hair clip and her stern expression seemed to be judging them from behind their glasses. She couldn't have been more out of place, but the backstage pass dangling around her neck meant that she had definitely been invited.

"This isn't Penelope," Lenny said, and then, just at this moment, the woman opened her mouth.

"Excuse me, I'm Amelia Farrah Fowler, you're The Big Bang Theory."

Her voice was strong and proud, like she exuded all the confidence in the world, and it came as something of a shock to Raj who had expected her to sound shy and mousy. A quick glance towards Howard and Lenny told him they were surprised too, their mouths slightly opened and their brows furrowed in confusion. Sheldon, however, didn't seem to notice the irony of a person looking like that sounding like this, and he answered.

"Hello Amelia Farrah Fowler," he said. "I'm sorry to inform you that we have no desire in interacting with fans and that you are more than welcome to come back to where you came from. Unless, of course, you are willing to let Howard, quote unquote, drive this Ferrari into oblivion."

"If that was slang, I'm unfamiliar with it. If that was literal, know that I have an aversion for cars and driving. In any case, I'm here because I'm being blackmailed by a hidden dirty sock and that I can't go back to where I came from since I'm just coming from the toilet for my scheduled emptying of the bladder."

"Interesting," Sheldon said. "I definitely share your aversion to soiled hosiery and can't do without a well-established bathroom schedule."

Amelia Farrah Fowler smiled a forced smile that looked a lot like Sheldon's and Raj was suddenly hit by how creepy this looked like.

"I understand someone named Lenny invited my friend Penelope and us to this concert," Amelia Farrah Fowler continued, "but I'll have you know that this is a poisoned gift. There is nothing I hate more than socializing with people I don't know."

Raj knew what was going to happen before it did. Expectantly, he looked at Sheldon, seeing something he couldn't quite place change on his friend's face.

"May I offer you a beverage?"

Amelia Farrah Fowler looked behind her, probably looking for her friends, but since they weren't anywhere in sight, she turned back to Sheldon and said "Tepid water, please."

Off they went towards the bar that had been set backstage for the after concert party, and Howard asked out loud the question he, Raj and Lenny had been thinking:

"Good God, what just happened?"

* * *

**A/N: All right! Now that the Shamy met, we just need to introduce Bernadette to Raj and Howard, and then to reunite the whole gang, and the real fun will be starting. Thanks for reading, and as always, reviews are greatly appreciated. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far, by the way, and sorry if I don't answer: I'm just really bad at answering messages/reviews/e-mails/texts... But I actually read them all, and they mean a lot.**


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